Every emergency responder has heard the stories about the “Big One”, that event that challenged and taxed their agency to the maximum. It could have been a bank robbery, warehouse fire or a 15-car pileup on the highway and each of these events have a common thread; they must have had a lot of radio communications during these events. I can think of a number of large-scale events that can easily challenge any department’s radio communications. I am going to take a look at a number of these events and talk about some ways in which you should be plan for similar events with training and equipment.

In the past few months, there has been a lot of bad press for the fire and police services across the country. I have watched the videos where police officers and firefighters get into arguments over who is in charge, who is right, who can break windows at a fire and who can block a road at an accident to name just a few.

Like with all things in life, there is a beginning and an end; this is as much true for the life of a radio. It does not matter the size or the cost, all radios are individuals and must be treated as such. I know this sounds strange, but if you don’t think of them like this, then you will find yourself getting in trouble for having missing or unaccounted items. I am not going to sit here and tell you what methods you will need to achieve this goal but you can use a simple Excel spreadsheet or a fancy bar coding system, the important is to use something.

The Emergency Communications Center and Emergency Operations Center for many cities are vital pieces to the day to day operations and to support the first responders out on the streets. A great deal of planning and money has been invested in these locations to be able to handle the emergency telephone calls and radio dispatching capabilities. But what happens when the “emergency” involves one of these centers? A tornado rips through town and the building is destroyed, a flood makes the building inaccessible or the telephone lines to the building have been damaged by a water line contractor and it will take days to repair; what are you going to do now?